5 Best Spots for Truly Last-Minute Shopping

Written by: Jason Notte12/24/12 - 11:51 AM EST

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The Slurpee machine has since become self-aware and began stocking gift cards available for Zynga (ZNGA) games on Facebook (FB) , iTunes music and movies, headphones, DVDs and, most importantly, batteries. It's great to have a stocking-candy nirvana open on Christmas Day just in case, but knowing they stock batteries on the one day that parents invariably forget that their child's favorite Christmas toy needs them earns 7-Eleven some seldom-received respect.

Travel sites

The folks at Priceline (PCLN) , Orbitz (OWW) , Expedia (EXPE) and just about every airline in the world will be more than happy to book you a vacation this Christmas Eve. They'll take your money, they'll send you an itinerary quickly and, if you happen to book a trip for either those post-holiday "dark weeks" in January or the non-Valentines weeks in February just before spring break, you may just get a deal out of it, too.

"You just need to find a clever way to deliver it," Dan de Grandpre, founder and CEO of dealnews.com, told the Christian Science Monitor . "I did that once myself. I booked a Caribbean vacation on Christmas Eve and put my wife's bikini in a box. It's the ultimate procrastinator's gift."